Fall colours

This one I played with a little bit in post-processing.

This scene and therefore the image already had great colours. Late fall gave the gorgeous reds and oranges, and the sun was setting, leaving the pinks on the left. The water was quite still, giving a very beautiful reflection. So, what did I do to this?

First, I cropped it. I actually cut out most of the sunset, because that isn't what I wanted to focus on. Then I added some "warmth" to the picture. It gave the sky a slightly odd cast, but I think it made the rest of the colours pop even more. Third, I increased the saturation a bit, again, just to bring out those gorgeous colours even more.

I love this picture.

Wordless Wednesday: Calm

Downtown reflections

Light moves in funny ways around a downtown. Because of all the windows, a side of a building that should still be in the dark can have wonderful light patterns on it.

There's a million ways this could have been better - starting with not being shot through a dirty window! Thankfully, that doesn't show up much. Instead your eye is drawn to the amazing pink light pattern along the side of the building. One thing I like about working several floors up is being able to take these pictures straight on, rather than looking up. I darkened this one up while I was shooting, in order to bring out that pink more clearly.

Auto white balance, -2/3 exposure bias, ISO 200, aperture 5.0, 1/50 second exposure (0.02 sec)

Shiny, wavy, pattern

I think this object is pretty cool in "real life". And I think it makes for a great photo too!

The pattern is the repeating waves in the metal. I've thought that was neat since the first time I saw it, but with all the warped and partial reflections on the curves, I think it's even more interesting! And looking at the bottom of the waves, you can almost wonder if they are bending in towards the camera, or away from it.

So, what do you think the object is?

Auto white balance, 0 exposure bias, ISO 800, aperture 4.5 and 1/160 exposure length, no flash.

Christmas boat

1) Yeah, yeah, holidays are over, blah blah. Too bad, you get another picture anyway! :-)
2) My boyfriend roundly chastised me for leaving the tripod in the vehicle. I apologize in advance for that fact, because it did have a negative impact on the picture, although I believe I took this one propped on some kind of pillar or post.

The moment I saw this boat, I loved it! They did such a great job with the lights. What I was trying to capture here: The boat's lights as well as the reflection. I don't believe the reflection would ever be perfect, as this is on the ocean, so the water is never perfectly still. And it takes so very little movement for light to "smear". As much as I like the lights though, my favourite part of this image is actually the boat just in front of it, to the right in the image. It's reflection on the water is quite crisp. I did slightly crop this picture, to cut out a distracting boat to one side, but that was the extent of post-processing.

So, how to get this picture better? A tripod is a given, but because it was on moving water, a long exposure isn't the solution for a sharp picture. I would still need a faster shutter speed. A high ISO and large aperture would be in order, I think. Sadly, I was too tired to try playing with the settings that evening, I just wanted to enjoy the view and the nice smells, so I let the camera do it's thing and I will simply try to learn from what it did.


Auto white balance, 0 exposure bias, ISO 400, aperture 3.2 and 0.8 second exposure length.

Lake reflection

Yay for vacations! They give you a chance to try a whole different type of photography, by being in a different environment. Here, instead of dealing with snow, I have to figure out how to deal with fog and near-constant drizzle.

For this picture, I was trying to get two sets of trees - the real, and the reflection! I really like the way it turned out, with the skiff of fog over the water to act as a sort of barrier for the two. The sky is a little too bright, too washed out. I wasn't expecting that to be an issue on such a rainy, cloudy day!

It's a tree!

Another of the 30 Day Challenge topics was trees or foliage. The problem I've been having with a lot of my photography lately is lighting - the sun rises after I've left for work, and sets while I'm still at work. And natural light is of course my favourite. So it's been a little tricky getting some of these shots without either resorting to taking umpteen pictures in my office or through a window. This one, however, I got on a bus!

Part of what I enjoy of this challenge is that it's making me more aware of my surroundings. I have to really look around and think of things that will fit different aspects of the challenge. In this case, here is an ad I had seen dozens of times before, but I'd never really realized it was a tree! (As a bonus, the mirror in effect gives me two trees!)

Reflections

This picture actually has 2 reflections in it. One is fairly obvious, the other, not as much. Can you figure it out?

The trick of taking a picture of a reflection, rather than of the thing, was taught by my first photography instructor. She didn't have a lot of time, but she was trying to give us some easy tips to take more interesting photographs, and this was an example of looking for things in unusual ways.

Have you spotted the 2 reflections yet? The first and obvious one is the person. The second is the vehicle's side mirror. No? You think that's the real mirror? Consider how useless a mirror would be to the driver if it was positioned in that location and at that angle - it's a reflection!

A new series - People!

I asked my friend the other day for some ideas for a theme I could use when I went out to take pictures that lunch. She came up with several great ideas I was tossing around (and will keep for later), and then she gave me one that made my blood run cold.

People.

Normally, I resist taking photos of people, because I'm very afraid that people will think I'm a creepy stalker. I also have a wonderful tendency to catch them with funny looks on their faces, or strange background objects.

Therefore, this seemed like the perfect challenge for me. Something to push me out of my comfort zone. So over the next few days, I hope you enjoy my forays in to stalker-dom, as I try to capture some pictures of people.

The first shot I'm posting is not actually the first one I took. The rest of the person is actually sitting in a little alcove, but from the angle, you can't see that. What you do see is the reflection of his legs, making it look almost like there are just 2 pairs of legs, from the knees down, lying on the floor.

There were tricky lighting issues because of the windows, which was probably good - my instinct had been to go full zoom and stay far away. But the picture was terrible. So it forced me to get closer to a subject who wouldn't even know I was there, and likely wouldn't care (since he is completely unidentifiable.)

If I were to do it over, I would step slightly to the left so as not to cut off the toes in the reflection. And I would try taking the picture from the other end of the hall, by the red planter, for comparison.

Later than usual

Whoops, quite late today, but it's still Thursday so I have not broken the photo-per-day mission!

Skyscrapers make for neat photos. In this twist, instead of looking up at the building, I'm actually looking up it's reflection! It's a bit deceiving at first, because the frames around the panes of window line up very well with the building's reflection.

Reflections, take 2

Now that I've discovered this method of photography, I'm having a lot of fun with it!

It's almost tricky to sort out what is the reflection and what's "real".

Reflection

The image is not of the car, or its window, but of the reflection in the window.